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Daltonia - Nixon picks Tower in 1968
1969-1974: Richard Nixon / John Tower (Republican)
1968: Hubert Humphrey / Edmund Muskie (Democratic), George Wallace / Ezra Taft Benson (American Independent)
1972: Edmund Muskie / Terry Sanford (Democratic), George Wallace / A. B. Chandler (American Independent)
1974: John Tower / Vacant (Republican)
1974-1977: John Tower / Charles Percy (Republican)
1977-1985: John Gilligan / Lloyd Bentsen (Democratic)
1976: Ronald Reagan / Elliot Richardson (Republican)
1980: Bob Dole / Alexander Haig (Republican)
1985-1993: Sandra Day O'Connor / Marshall Coleman (Republican)
1984: Lloyd Bensten / Dick Celeste (Democratic)
1988: Buddy MacKay / Elizabeth Holtzman (Democratic)
1993-1997: Jack Gargan / Bernadine Healy (Reform)
1992: Dick Celeste / Al Gore, John H. Sununu / Thomas Harkett (Republican)
1997-2005: Erskine Bowles / Joe Biden (Democratic)
1996: Jack Lousma / Lamar Alexander (Republican), Dean Barkley / Leon Panetta (Reform)
2000: Mike Huckabee / Spencer Abraham (Republican), Buddy Roemer / (Reform)
2005-2013: Jim Gilmore / John Sanchez (Republican)
2004: Richard Swett / Tim Kaine (Democratic)
2008: Ron Kirk / Paul Vallas (Democratic)
2013-2021: Kathleen Vineout / Phil Gordon (Democratic)
2012: John Sanchez / Ed Gillespie (Republican)
2016: Henry McMaster / Loretta Sanchez (Republican)
2021-: Kelli Ward / Patrick Murphy (Republican)
2020: Condoleezza Rice / Cory Gardner (Democratic)
The PoD is Nixon picking Tower in '68. Nixon's term plays out mostly as OTL, but without Agnew's scandals, Nixon goes down over Watergate a bit sooner. Tower proves to be overwhelmed by the presidency, and his alcoholism intensifies to the point that it becomes impossible to cover up. Tower's poor performance, combined with the never-ending trial of Richard ItNixon, lead to sinking ratings which lead to Tower to choose not to run for a full term. Not even Reagan can save the tarnished Republican brand, and John Gilligan receives a decisive mandate for a Liberal agenda; under his watch, the Equal Rights Amendment is passed as well as a massive Medicare expansion which comes to cover two-thirds of the population. His re-election in 1980 in the face of global recession is widely viewed as a stunning upset, massively aided by a "rally-around-the-flag" effect as a result of American intervention in the Iranian Civil War in Autumn 1980. He is able to install a pro-American leadership and lets the Shah live out the rest of his life in Switzerland. His popularity dipped as the economy worsened and its recovery was too slow to help Lloyd Bentsen succeed him.
The well-liked governor of Arizona got to embody the optimism of the 1980s, bringing about an end to the Cold War by providing President Ryzhkov with much-needed aid to save the new Sovereign Union from collapse. More controversial is the pursual of Free Trade with Canada and Mexico, ultimately rushed through just before the 1992 election. While remaining personally popular, a stagnating economy combined with high-profile corruption scandals (the most prominent being the self-destruction of Senate Majority Leader Alan Cranston) lead to an anti-establishment backlash in the form of an Independent Senator from Texas. President Gargan, having formed a third party to fight the election, with the Reform Party managing to net a dozen Congressmen and a Senator. He does surprisingly well for someone with no base in Congress, torpedoing NAFTA at the last minute and working with Congress to force through many anti-corruption laws. Unable to pass term limits for legislators, Gargan forgoes a second term in a characteristic fit of pique; His party doesn't survive long without him.
North Carolina Senator Erskine Bowles became the Democratic Nominee after a brokered convention but seemed to embody the "establishment" that so obsessed Gargan. In 1998, he leads a Western Coalition to remove the disintegrating Apartheid Regime in South Africa and secure its weapons of Mass Destruction. At home, big investments in transport and infrastructure were pushed through by the Vice President. Had a health scare not forced him out of the race, most believe that he could have easily defeated Gilmore, whose strategy seemed to involve doing as little governing as possible. The legalisation of Same-Sex Marriage in 2007 (Chief Justice Howard Baker writing that its prohibition violated the Equal Rights Amendment) and Gilmore's indifference to the decision showed how impotent the Religious Right had become since banking everything on Mike Huckabee in 2000. The Gilmore Administration seemed desperate to get out of South Africa as quickly as possible and enjoyed relatively frosty relations with Jean-Pierre Raffarin and Charles Kennedy; Gilmore seemed to prefer the company of his allies in Asia, leaders like Japan's Toshikatsu Matsuoka and India's Jayalalithaa. The bottom began to fall out of Wall Street in 2010 and while tight regulations limited the spread of the financial crises, it heralded a sharp recession and put into question many of the Republicans' deregulation plans.
The Reformist Governor of Wisconsin set out to be a second LBJ, but couldn't quite manage it. Expanding welfare programs was one thing, but more regulations on hard-working big businesses was too much to stomach for many more moderate Democrats. Civil Rights legislation to protect LGBT Americans and expand oversight of police forces were radical enough for many. In her second term, she was caught off guard, along with most of her European Allies, when the Sovereign Union sent troops into prop up the collapsing regime in Iran in 2017. Attempts at UN Sanctions had little effect. The American public came to care about what was happening in Iran once petrol prices began to skyrocket once more, however. An insurgent populist campaign that defined "Dog-Whistling" propelled controversial Arizona Governor Kelli Ward to the Republican nomination and blindsided Kelliher's popular Secretary of State. While many of her anti-immigration policies are getting challenged heavily in the courts, her endless brinkmanship with President Fradkov over the Ukraine's efforts to break away from the Sovereign Union has put East and West the closest to war since the 1960s...
1968: Hubert Humphrey / Edmund Muskie (Democratic), George Wallace / Ezra Taft Benson (American Independent)
1972: Edmund Muskie / Terry Sanford (Democratic), George Wallace / A. B. Chandler (American Independent)
1974: John Tower / Vacant (Republican)
1974-1977: John Tower / Charles Percy (Republican)
1977-1985: John Gilligan / Lloyd Bentsen (Democratic)
1976: Ronald Reagan / Elliot Richardson (Republican)
1980: Bob Dole / Alexander Haig (Republican)
1985-1993: Sandra Day O'Connor / Marshall Coleman (Republican)
1984: Lloyd Bensten / Dick Celeste (Democratic)
1988: Buddy MacKay / Elizabeth Holtzman (Democratic)
1993-1997: Jack Gargan / Bernadine Healy (Reform)
1992: Dick Celeste / Al Gore, John H. Sununu / Thomas Harkett (Republican)
1997-2005: Erskine Bowles / Joe Biden (Democratic)
1996: Jack Lousma / Lamar Alexander (Republican), Dean Barkley / Leon Panetta (Reform)
2000: Mike Huckabee / Spencer Abraham (Republican), Buddy Roemer / (Reform)
2005-2013: Jim Gilmore / John Sanchez (Republican)
2004: Richard Swett / Tim Kaine (Democratic)
2008: Ron Kirk / Paul Vallas (Democratic)
2013-2021: Kathleen Vineout / Phil Gordon (Democratic)
2012: John Sanchez / Ed Gillespie (Republican)
2016: Henry McMaster / Loretta Sanchez (Republican)
2021-: Kelli Ward / Patrick Murphy (Republican)
2020: Condoleezza Rice / Cory Gardner (Democratic)
The PoD is Nixon picking Tower in '68. Nixon's term plays out mostly as OTL, but without Agnew's scandals, Nixon goes down over Watergate a bit sooner. Tower proves to be overwhelmed by the presidency, and his alcoholism intensifies to the point that it becomes impossible to cover up. Tower's poor performance, combined with the never-ending trial of Richard ItNixon, lead to sinking ratings which lead to Tower to choose not to run for a full term. Not even Reagan can save the tarnished Republican brand, and John Gilligan receives a decisive mandate for a Liberal agenda; under his watch, the Equal Rights Amendment is passed as well as a massive Medicare expansion which comes to cover two-thirds of the population. His re-election in 1980 in the face of global recession is widely viewed as a stunning upset, massively aided by a "rally-around-the-flag" effect as a result of American intervention in the Iranian Civil War in Autumn 1980. He is able to install a pro-American leadership and lets the Shah live out the rest of his life in Switzerland. His popularity dipped as the economy worsened and its recovery was too slow to help Lloyd Bentsen succeed him.
The well-liked governor of Arizona got to embody the optimism of the 1980s, bringing about an end to the Cold War by providing President Ryzhkov with much-needed aid to save the new Sovereign Union from collapse. More controversial is the pursual of Free Trade with Canada and Mexico, ultimately rushed through just before the 1992 election. While remaining personally popular, a stagnating economy combined with high-profile corruption scandals (the most prominent being the self-destruction of Senate Majority Leader Alan Cranston) lead to an anti-establishment backlash in the form of an Independent Senator from Texas. President Gargan, having formed a third party to fight the election, with the Reform Party managing to net a dozen Congressmen and a Senator. He does surprisingly well for someone with no base in Congress, torpedoing NAFTA at the last minute and working with Congress to force through many anti-corruption laws. Unable to pass term limits for legislators, Gargan forgoes a second term in a characteristic fit of pique; His party doesn't survive long without him.
North Carolina Senator Erskine Bowles became the Democratic Nominee after a brokered convention but seemed to embody the "establishment" that so obsessed Gargan. In 1998, he leads a Western Coalition to remove the disintegrating Apartheid Regime in South Africa and secure its weapons of Mass Destruction. At home, big investments in transport and infrastructure were pushed through by the Vice President. Had a health scare not forced him out of the race, most believe that he could have easily defeated Gilmore, whose strategy seemed to involve doing as little governing as possible. The legalisation of Same-Sex Marriage in 2007 (Chief Justice Howard Baker writing that its prohibition violated the Equal Rights Amendment) and Gilmore's indifference to the decision showed how impotent the Religious Right had become since banking everything on Mike Huckabee in 2000. The Gilmore Administration seemed desperate to get out of South Africa as quickly as possible and enjoyed relatively frosty relations with Jean-Pierre Raffarin and Charles Kennedy; Gilmore seemed to prefer the company of his allies in Asia, leaders like Japan's Toshikatsu Matsuoka and India's Jayalalithaa. The bottom began to fall out of Wall Street in 2010 and while tight regulations limited the spread of the financial crises, it heralded a sharp recession and put into question many of the Republicans' deregulation plans.
The Reformist Governor of Wisconsin set out to be a second LBJ, but couldn't quite manage it. Expanding welfare programs was one thing, but more regulations on hard-working big businesses was too much to stomach for many more moderate Democrats. Civil Rights legislation to protect LGBT Americans and expand oversight of police forces were radical enough for many. In her second term, she was caught off guard, along with most of her European Allies, when the Sovereign Union sent troops into prop up the collapsing regime in Iran in 2017. Attempts at UN Sanctions had little effect. The American public came to care about what was happening in Iran once petrol prices began to skyrocket once more, however. An insurgent populist campaign that defined "Dog-Whistling" propelled controversial Arizona Governor Kelli Ward to the Republican nomination and blindsided Kelliher's popular Secretary of State. While many of her anti-immigration policies are getting challenged heavily in the courts, her endless brinkmanship with President Fradkov over the Ukraine's efforts to break away from the Sovereign Union has put East and West the closest to war since the 1960s...
- Callan
- Word Count: 970